Man, I feel rough for Louis but you could see this happening. Diana, from the sketch at least, seems to want to rectify things, which is good, as even if she didn't mean too she may be close to breaking his heart. I'm not sure if she chooses to close the door on that or if she leaves it open.

Diana knows she doesn't quite feel the same way Louis does, but may be scared to lose him as a friend or person who has helped her and done so much for her. She may even hate to hurt his feelings but if she is honest with herself she has to know this will only be worse for him. If she were honest she could even say "I don't feel that way right now," though I know that can be very rocky. More cynically, she worries what she will do without him to help her. Honestly I'm not sure she understands what she is doing or feels herself.

I'm pretty sure it reads that she is not in the same, eyes closed embrace of feelings that Louis is. She may 'love' him but not in the sense that Louis does. What exactly she's thinking, I couldn't say.

Oh no. :/ If I'm reading Diana's expression in the last panel right...

It would have been better if she were clearer about her feelings right then and there; "I hadn't thought about us this way before and I love you, but I don't know if it's romantic or not" would've been a perfectly reasonable response. If she waits, everything will come to a head later on and they will both get far more hurt than they would have now--and/or Diana will be stuck for <i>ages</i> giving parts of herself to this relationship that she didn't want to, dealing with guilt for leading Louis on, and attempting to sort out (or second-guessing) what she does and doesn't feel for him.

The heart-warming and heart-aching complication here is that she meant every word she said, from a platonic standpoint, and that's why she's doing this in the first place. That and a heaping dose of too-much-happening-too-fast-too-little-time-for-thought.

Placing my bets now that when Alice gets wind of this, all sorts of messy ugliness will ensue.

It would have been better if she were clearer about her feelings right then and there; "I hadn't thought about us this way before and I love you, but I don't know if it's romantic or not" would've been a perfectly reasonable response. If she waits, everything will come to a head later on and they will both get far more hurt than they would have now--and/or Diana will be stuck for <i>ages</i> giving parts of herself to this relationship that she didn't want to, dealing with guilt for leading Louis on, and attempting to sort out (or second-guessing) what she does and doesn't feel for him.

The heart-warming and heart-aching complication here is that she meant every word she said, from a platonic standpoint, and that's why she's doing this in the first place. That and a heaping dose of too-much-happening-too-fast-too-little-time-for-thought.

Placing my bets now that when Alice gets wind of this, all sorts of messy ugliness will ensue.

Exactly, she doesn't have to decide how she feels about Louis right there and then. The worst thing you can do is enter a relationship being dishonest. But that's something people often learn with experience unfortunately.